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Feedback: Your ideas on what rich is
Mmmmmoney. Counting money.
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Next week on Marketplace Money, the show will concentrate on one number: $250,000. It's the current line in the sand in the debate on whether to extend Bush-era tax cuts. An income of $250,000 makes you wealthy, says one side. Oh no it doesn't, says the other.
We'll hear from people like you across the nation on the topic. Some say, "A household of $250,000 is not wealthy." Others say, "Yes, in many places in the country its." What do you think?
We'll also hear from people like Robert Frank, whose book "Richistan" chronicled a dozen or so folks worth millions of dollars who say they don't feel rich.
"I had a couple, they're worth $200 million. They said to me, 'Wow, I love reading that book about those people. I couldn't believe those people in your books.' So the wealthy they don't see themselves as wealthy," says Frank. "There was a billionaire I talked to who said, 'I'm not rich. Now let me tell you about this guy who is rich.' And he genuinely meant it because, again, we're always looking at those above us and comparing ourselves to the people that we'd like to be rather than looking down at the reality."
We want your feedback: What is rich to you? Leave a comment here or at our Facebook page.
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I have a Master's Degree and my husband has an advanced degree past 4 year college. We both work full time (I am an adjunct community college professor and small business owner) We both put in more and more hours to get less and less. We have never exceeded $65,000 combined before taxes, and once we make car payments, student loan payments, credit payments, etc and figure business losses recently we are watching our dollars! Do the $250,000 plus people eat out at restaurants and drive-throughs? Have someone else mow their yard, do dry cleaning, clean their house(es)for them, make reasonable contributions to their retirement accounts? Maybe they have lost touch with what it's like to live without ALL of that, maybe they think that is part of a basic lifestyle. It's not, to most of us!
I find comments about how much the rich are spending as a excuse they are not rich. Sorry, that is your choice to spend that much.
If its due to you running a business under your name, you are naive and need to separate that out and incorporate.
You spending habbits of wasting 300K when you make 250K is a sign of BAD money management. Don't blame the poor your your in ability, figure it out or stop your spending.
You know if its really bad you can file bankruptcy. Granted in the end you might have to have a more humble life, but you know vast majority of us are well below that level.
I am tired of rich 'bo-ho'ing' about how they JUST are not rich enough. Greed is a addiction. You can get help.
Since the AVERAGE MIDDLE CLASS INCOME is 50,000 a year, 250,000 is 5 TIMES that amount!
By definition it is. DUH!
Granted I know a few who make that amount or even more, they have no idea of scale of their income and actually assume the are lower middle income.... that was until they got a scale and saw where they were.
To many just look at who is above them, and forget who is below them. No wonder why the poor keep getting poor.
You know the 1950's and 60's when we had huge economic boom and development, we had about 92% tax for that and higher income. Seems to me that needs to return to gain a real 'progressive' economy. (Progressive= as in growing)
The gap between the rich and poor is accelerating, and this tax break only made it worse. That money does NOT trickle down. The land below is so dry it needs to POOR down. Maybe take out the middle man, the rich.
$250,000 a year is definitely wealthy from my perspective. I have a master's degree and am recently retired. My annual income never topped $70,000 and most years was substantially less than that.
I deliberately chose to live in small towns where my income would go further. Since the mid-80's, I've given 10% of gross income to charity. I sometimes wonder if those folks just barely scraping by on $250,000 are tithing.
Because my income level is in the top 20% nationally, I consider myself to be extremely privileged. Because my income level is at the BOTTOM of that top 20%, I consider myself upper-middle class, but not "rich." However, people who bring in more than the $250,000 p/a cutoff, especially those whose annual income tops 1 million, but who do not "think" they are rich are blinded either by their own environment (they are not as rich as the richest people around them) OR (and I think this is more likely the case), they are deliberately convincing themselves that they are "fighting for liquidity" (to appropriate one of the more notorious statements surrounding the Enron scandal) because they need to rationalize their lack of generosity, their lack of social awareness, and their lack of philanthropic interest. In other words, they are greedy, but they need to convince themselves that there are "reasons" why their stinginess and lack of generosity is acceptable.
I agree with one of the other responders: "$250K/ year can make someone rich, but not if they're spending $300K. Wealth has more to do with Net Worth than it has to do with income". My spouse and I are DINKs (Double Income No Kids)and we make slightly less than that. We're partially college educated (didn't finish) and have to work long and hard to come near $250K. We save every dime we can because we're close to retirement and now they're going to take everything and change the rules to provide for people who were not responsible from the start? Count us out!
Hmmm..I make a great deal less than that and support my family, adult son & daughter with 4 grandchildren. I think of my taxes as membership in the Country Club of the USA. Remember that you get what you pay for. Specifically, $250k (net) is a great place to place the marker.
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